The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to the management of a Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled network via a Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some information handling systems such as, for example, networking devices, are configured to provide power as well as data over the same network connection. For example, some switches are enabled with Power over Ethernet (PoE) subsystems that are configured to provide electrical power along with data on twisted pair Ethernet cabling, which allows a single network cable to provide both data connections and electrical power to powered devices such as, for example, wireless access points, IP cameras, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones. Conventionally, such PoE capable switches are managed in an isolated and manual manner, with a network administrator required to access the switch via its Command Line Interface (CLI) and provide CLI commands to enable PoE on a port, list the powered devices connected to the switch, retrieve power utilization statistics, and/or perform a variety of other PoE management actions known in the art. The manual and isolated manner in which PoE capable switches are managed is a time consuming and error prone process, and those issues are exacerbated as the number of PoE capable switches increase in a network.
For example, when a powered device is connected to a switch in the network and the power available in that switch is scarce, the network administrator must manually check the PoE capabilities and availability in the switches in the network until a switch is identified that is both PoE capable and has sufficient power available for the powered device. However, network administrators typically do not wish to perform such time consuming processes, which often results in the powered device being connected to an underpowered switch, and requires that powered device to wait for power to become available from that switch. In such situations, if the powered device is categorized as a low priority powered device, the wait for power may be acceptable. However, a high priority powered device will require the compromise of power to one or more other powered devices connected to that switch to ensure sufficient power for the high priority powered device. As such, current PoE management systems provide for individual management of PoE devices via manual processes, which increases the chance for management errors and greatly limits the benefits that could be realized from more centralized management of the PoE network.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved PoE management system.